To stay ahead of competitors, large merchants offer incentives to motivate customers to shop at their locations, whether online or at the store location. A common incentive used by merchants is the private label credit card (e.g., store credit cards). These cards provide merchants a means to increase loyalty, target offers, track consumer purchases, reduce card processing costs, and increase brand awareness. Consumers also benefit from using private label cards in the form of rewards, discounts, and access to credit.
Typically, each private label credit card held by a consumer is managed independently, meaning that every card carries separate credit exposure and credit score impact, and is billed separately. To reduce the impact on credit scores and minimize the complexities associated with separate billing processes, consumers are motivated to carry only a relatively small number of private label credit cards.